


The Galaxy Between Us

by panaceaa



Category: South Park
Genre: Fluff, Kenny has a lot of feelings, Kyle has all the abilities of the Human Kite, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 11:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15095651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panaceaa/pseuds/panaceaa
Summary: Kenny fell in love exactly one time in his life. Unfortunately, it happened inside of a spaceship high above the earth and was with a boy who was most certainly not of his world.





	The Galaxy Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> Heya :) I don't normally do recommend listening, but I listened to one song the entire time I wrote this and I feel like it really sets the tone, so I'm just going to leave it here: John Dreamer - True Strength.

Within walking distance of Kenny’s apartment was a bar.

It wasn’t anything too special. A small yet quaint little place. Cheap, but with an outdoor patio that overlooked the small little fenced-in lake that served as decoration more than anything in the dull grayness of the city.

It was at that bar that Kenny was seated now, taking a sip of his drink and looking at the stars reflected in the surface of the water. A thousand tiny orbs of light, as small as specks as if they were a dusting of freckles across the blanket of the sky. But somewhere out there, light-years away, each and every one of them was as bright and as massive as the sun.

“Dude, are you even listening?”

Kenny looks back over at Stan who was seated across from him and was viewing him with an exasperated expression. He blinks at his childhood friend before shrugging lightly in answer.

“You’ve been talking about Wendy for hours, dude. She’s all you ever talk about.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Stan sighs offering him an apologetic smile. “Sorry dude, it’s just I wish she would stop caring so much about literally everything, and start caring a little bit more about me. She frustrates the hell out of me, but I still love her, you know?” He sighs again, the sound a bit more heavy this time, as if that fact has caused him more trouble than the hopeless romantic himself had ever anticipated. After taking another hefty sip of his drink, Stan pauses almost contemplatively before turning his gaze to Kenny and asking, “Have you ever fallen in love?”

Kenny blinks in surprise at the question, but after a moment he finds his lips tilting into a smile. A sad half tilt of the lips that speaks of a certain nostalgia. Speaks of a memory.

Turning his gaze back towards the sky, he speaks his answer softly into the atmosphere. The particles of sound, his one solid truth, getting swept up into the night air until it all but vanishes as if maybe he hadn’t even said the word at all.

“Once.”

***

_Four years earlier:_

Kenny is dying.

Moments from death. Blood from his stab wound pulsing out of his side and the cold cement of the sidewalk soaking through his clothes and into his skin.

Above him he can see stars.

Individually hazy, but together they form the blanket of the universe. Telling of a world beyond earth. Of galaxies upon galaxies that lingered light-years away, finding earth as insignificant as the earth found him to be.

It is but a moment, a single blink of his eyes or so he thinks. He really can’t tell anymore, hell maybe he blacked out. But what he does know is that suddenly the stars are blocked out by the face of a boy.

His face is unfamiliar and Kenny knows for certain he’d never be able to forget a face like this. Apple green eyes. Full lips. Brow scrunched slightly in concern. With hair of the most vivid red curling out from beneath a...bald cap? So, the fashion sense was a little odd. But the face?

Ethereal.

“Did it hurt?” Kenny whispers.

The boy's brow creases.

“Falling from heaven, I mean,” Kenny laughs until he chokes on what must be blood and starts coughing. “Ah, fuck.”

But then to his surprise, without a word, the boy leans over and ghosts his hands through his hair, sticky with blood. Then he lightly trails his fingertips across his jaw and brushes some hair from his face. As if he were made of glass. He whispers something, but the words aren’t any that Kenny recognizes. A combination of sounds he has never heard before.

He wants to ask him what he said, but the moment he tries to speak he just ends up entering another coughing fit that ends in a whimper as the movement causes everything to shift and the pain to crash into him full force. But then suddenly the boy’s hands are running soothingly through his hair again, the universal sound of a soft shush falling from his lips, and despite everything Kenny finds himself relaxing at his gentle attentions.

No one normally ran to him when he died. No one normally cared. He had the curse of all shitty curses, forced to watch on in agony as those he cared the most for watched him suffer with glazed eyes and blank expressions.

What made this boy so different?

Just who _was_ he?

But Kenny doesn’t get his answer, not on this night at least. Instead, he only gets more questions as through the haziness of a quickly approaching death, Kenny swears the boy's hands suddenly emit a bright blue light. They travel along his body bringing warmth and a feeling unlike anything he’s ever felt before; unnatural, yet comforting.

He finds himself closing his eyes to the sensation and it isn’t long before he loses himself to darkness.

***

When Kenny next wakes up he doesn’t recognize his surroundings.

No longer on the city street, he’s instead somewhere that looks straight out of some sci-fi movie. Fancy technology lining the walls along with large posters of space. The walls themselves are a sleek silver metal and seem to have a distinct curve, unlike anything he’s ever seen before. He hardly even knows what he’s looking at, although he supposes his still fuzzy head could also have something to do with that. But what he does know is that he’s never quite seen a place on earth like it.

But that’s not really what has his attention at the moment.

Because standing over him, bathed in the strange blue glow emanating from his hands, is the same boy that had come to him on the street. His features are highlighted with shadows and shades of blue, his weird cap missing and revealing a mess of deep red curls that were falling into his eyes as he concentrated on the path his hands took with that soft little crease forming between his brows.

Kenny can’t look away.

The thing about dreaming is that there is a part of it that is always uncertain. A question if things really are the way that they are, or if the person or object being viewed is actually something else entirely.

Kenny’s pretty sure that he’s dreaming, he has to be.

But the thing is, even though he doesn’t put much stock in religion anymore. Even though he has died and suffered too many times to find safety behind church doors and a book that was written far too long ago. There, in that moment, he thinks he might have found divinity itself.

It’s with that thought that the strange feeling washes over his body once more and his eyes fall closed.

***

The next time he wakes up his head is much clearer; although, this time the angel boy isn’t standing over him. With a groan, Kenny sits up, wincing as his injuries pull and tighten uncomfortably even though he’s definitely in much better shape than before. What he had been laying across appears to be some sort of sofa, but it’s steely gray and doesn’t appear to have a back to it.

The first thing he notices upon looking around is that what he had once taken for pictures of space were actually large glass windows. Which would mean…

His thoughts are interrupted by a mixture of sounds. Words that were nothing more than amalgamous gibberish since they were in a language he could not recognize.

Kenny shoots his gaze over towards the voice, only to see the boy who had been healing him. The redhead, thankfully having ditched the bald cap once again, offers him a small yet distinctly tense and nervous smile, as if he wasn’t quite sure how Kenny was going to react.

If he was being honest, Kenny wasn’t too sure of how he should react either. This entire situation was bizarre, and he had seen a lot of weird shit in his days of growing up in South Park, so he considered himself to be pretty good with weird.

Shaking his head, he decides to ask the most basic, most important, question he can think of.

“Where am I?”

Although, instead of answering the boy just looks down and continues messing with some device. After a moment, he smiles down at it smugly before looking back up at Kenny with a proud grin.

“You speak English.”

Kenny blinks, the words not at all what he had been expecting.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks?” He replies in pure confusion. “I’m well aware.”

The boy’s pride still doesn’t falter. He crosses his arms and settles his weight back on one foot, as if he’s just oh so satisfied with himself. Kenny would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little amused himself. The boy was cute, and already it was apparent he had one hell of a personality.

Maybe he should try another pickup line?

“Yeah but I wasn’t,” he says casually. “Now our translators can work.”

Staring at him for a moment, Kenny slowly lets that sink in. Takes in their environment, as well as the strange glow the redhead’s hands had taken on and suddenly everything clicks.

“You’re an alien.”

Really, he probably should have figured this out sooner. If only alien boy hadn’t been so damn attractive.

“Actually I’m Kyle,” alien boy says with an easy smirk, “and to me you’re the alien.”

Oh well if that’s the way he wanted to play then two could play at that game.

Matching his smirk, Kenny replies, “But you were on _my_ world.”

“And now you’re on _my_ ship,” Kyle counters without missing a beat.

“Touche,” Kenny says with a laugh, looking around again. Surrounded by all the fancy alien tech a sudden thought occurs to him. “You aren’t gonna probe me or something, are you?”

To his credit, Kyle seems completely taken aback by the question.

“Uh, no?”

“Okay cool, just making sure.” with a shrug he offers Kyle his most charming smile, “I’m Kenny.”

“Kenny.” Kyle says his name slowly, as if testing the word on his tongue, and Kenny can’t help but shiver. Alien boy might actually be the death of him. Kyle looks back at him, expression oddly bright. “I’m going to assume you have some questions.”

“Well, I mean a few.”

With a nod, Kyle straightens as if preparing to give a speech. “For starters, you don’t have to worry about being stuck here. I wouldn’t have even considered bringing you back if you weren’t as hurt as you were-“

“Ow, harsh.” Kenny interrupts with a playful grin. “I’m not really your type huh?”

Kyle just stares at him for a moment, as if not quite knowing what to do with himself now that his probably carefully rehearsed speech had been interrupted. That, or he really didn’t have too much experience with flirting. But with as breathtaking as he was, Kenny could hardly entertain the idea that he’d never been flirted with.

“...What?” Kyle decides on replying a few moments later and Kenny can’t help but giggle at his baffled expression.

“You know,” he tries explaining through his laughter, “I’m not someone you’d normally bring home?”

“I don’t normally…” Finally, something seems to click in Kyle’s head, as his confusion vanishes to be replaced with a deadpan look that sends Kenny into another giggle fit. “Wait are you flirting? Really?”

“You are the moon that lights my darkness.” Kenny goes on, voice muffled from his attempt to stifle his laughter. “The stars that brighten my orbit. The galaxy-“

“Oh my god.”

Unable to contain it anymore Kenny erupts into pure unrestrained laughter and gives up on trying to talk through it. Meanwhile, Kyle just stares at him with a slight red coloring creeping up his cheeks and a half amused and half puzzled expression as if he can’t quite figure him out.

“Okay, okay, I’m good,” Kenny says eventually, wiping tears from his eyes. “So tell me, why am I here?”

“You know, you seem remarkably unconcerned about your situation.”

Kenny shrugs. “What can I say, I’m good with weird.”

 _And not really afraid of death_ , he mentally adds. Besides, alien boy here didn’t exactly scream threatening, not with the almost warm looks he kept throwing him anyway.

Still, Kyle sighs, running a hand through his curls.

“Okay look,” he starts, apparently giving up on whatever speech he’d had planned. “You’re still injured, so I wouldn’t recommend moving too much. I’ve been healing you but I can only do so much at a time before I need to rest. Utilizing healing energy in such a large capacity tires me out pretty quickly.” He gives a slightly sheepish smile. “I was never really trained for it.”

Kenny slowly nods, flashes of memory running through his mind and suddenly clicking into place.

“So your hands going all blue and glowy, that was healing magic?”

“Uh, I wouldn’t call it magic really, but yeah.”

Well, that was certainly…interesting. A magic alien boy, then.

“So...can all your people do that?”

“Yeah.” Kyle shrugs as if it’s not a big deal. “Some better than others.”

Kenny blinks, wondering for a second if his people might be wizards or something. “Anything else I should know about?”

With a hum as if thinking about it, Kyle replies, “I’ve read a bit about you humans, you guys can’t shoot lasers out of your eyes or control the wind right?”

“Uh, no.”

Kyle seems smug, crossing his arms and tilting up his chin with a smirk. “We can.”

For a moment he’s not really sure if he heard him correctly. Where the hell did this magic alien boy come from?

“Holy shit.” Kenny says a little breathlessly. “And where are you from, exactly?”

Although, as soon as he asks that question Kyle’s expression seems to fall. A subtle drop in posture, all prior smugness vanishing with a small sigh. “Let’s just say my planet’s not exactly close by.”

Taking in slightly solemn look, Kenny flicks his gaze to their surroundings, seeing it with a new light. The ship seemed small, one or two rooms at most. There was the main area that they were in with all the windows and seating, and then a door up front that probably led to the control room or whatever they called it.

“Is there anyone else here?” He asks the redhead gently, already knowing the answer.

“No,” Kyle admits after a moment, looking at him with a small yet sad tilt to his lips. “It’s just me.”

Kenny allows himself to picture himself in his place for a second. Galaxies away from earth without knowing a single person. Without even knowing what language they spoke. Just returning to an empty ship every day while looking out at a planet that wasn’t even his own.

He couldn’t imagine living like that.

“Sounds pretty lonely.”

“It was,” Kyle says, looking at Kenny with something he can’t recognize before turning his gaze towards the window. Towards the expanse of space and the earth rotating in the distance. “But it was my choice,” his words are soft, yet steady. A certain stiffness to his shoulders as his hands clenched into silent fists at his sides. “I wanted to travel the galaxy and I don’t regret it.”

Deep down, Kenny thinks that he sounds a bit like he’s trying to convince himself. He knows the feeling well, standing up on rooftops with a stupid mask and dreams of justice while in reality everything was falling apart. But certain things shouldn’t be brought up after just meeting someone. Kenny knows he sure as hell wouldn’t want to talk about it with a perfect stranger, and so he decides to pick the easy option and change the subject.

“So, question.” He makes sure to keep his tone easy and nonchalant. “Can you tell me more about those laser eyes of yours because I really can’t see how an entire planet of people with that could ever be a good idea.”

Turning around from the window, Kenny takes in how Kyle’s eyes lit up at the prospect of a history lesson and he can’t help but be a little surprised at how he had known that would work.

He doesn’t dwell too much on it though. Just settles in and listens as Kyle talks, gesturing enthusiastically with his hands, and eyes almost sparkling.

The magic alien boy was definitely cute, Kenny decides. Passionate. A quiet pride and fire that burned just below the surface, promising doom if it was ignited, yet giving off a very distinct warmth when calmed. Kyle cared a whole lot about things, and it was a bit refreshing if Kenny was being honest. Not a lot of people cared about anything anymore.

And so, as he listens on, he finds that listening to Kyle talk might go high up on his short list of favorite things.

***

In the next few days, Kenny learns an awful lot about Kyle.

The guy likes to talk. About everything and everything. Entire world’s he’s heard about growing up, as well as the kite he used to fly with his dad back when the man used to still be a father figure. He tells him about fantasy stories, and science, and of a civilization built up in the clouds, where everyone was free….or were supposed to be anyway.

Kyle trailed off a little at that last part. Eyes focusing on a point a galaxy away before he seemed to shake himself out of it and continue on with another topic altogether.

He talks of his family. Briefly about his parents, more in passing than anything, but spends a lot of time talking about his brother. A familiar warmth in his gaze that Kenny is familiar with from the times he himself would talk about Karen. Kenny wonders if she’s called him, the girl was away at school but they still talked frequently on the phone. Would she be worried? He hoped not. Couldn’t exactly contact her from way up here.

But with all the love that Kyle seemed to have for talking, it isn’t long before curiosity wins over whatever had been holding him back, and he starts asking Kenny questions. Little simple things, things that Kenny wouldn’t really see as important yet Kyle awaits the answer to with clear curiosity and a willingness to learn that suggested he would hang onto every single detail.

“Hey I’ve been thinking,” Kyle asks him one night after another one of their healing sessions. Kyle’s sprawled out on the floor, as he frequently does at these times, while Kenny sits cross-legged beside him, looking down at the redhead as he speaks. “When I first found you, you said something and then laughed. What was that all about?”

Oh, right. That. It seemed so long ago now, so stupid. He’d thought he’d been about to die anyway.

“It was just a stupid pick up line,” Kenny tells the beautiful alien boy with a slight wince.

Kyle’s expression doesn't change, however. Instead, he just looks confused.

“A...pick up line?”

“Yeah, you know,” he gestures blindly, “like oh, did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Implying you were an angel or something.”

Kenny really never thought he’d have to explain a damn pick up line. Kyle was supposed to be some sort of genius or something right? Couldn’t he figure this out?

“An angel?”

...Or maybe it was a language problem. Or...a species problem? He still wasn’t too sure on the fundamental mechanics of that.

“I...yeah. You don’t have them?”

“Considering I don’t know what they are, I’m going to have to say no.”

Kenny slowly nods, trying to think of a way to explain something he knew about since he was a kid. “Okay, well they’re like these beautiful people who live up in the sky with wings. Oh and halos.”

When Kyle still looks at him in pure confusion, Kenny just shrugs helplessly. That was really the best he could do.

“Hold on,” Kyle says after a moment, standing up to go grab something from his desk. When he comes back Kenny notices what looks like a large tablet held within his hands. The redhead settles back on the ground before passing the surprisingly light object over to Kenny.

“Draw it for me?” He asks in explanation.

Kenny blinks, glaze flickering from Kyle to the tablet now sitting on his lap.

“You want me to…draw what? An angel?”

He nods, offering a crooked smile. “Yeah it’s a touchscreen, you just draw with your finger.”

And so Kenny does. Swiping his finger along the black screen he looks on in confusion as nothing seems to show up. He’s about to state this fact, but the moment he lifts his gaze he’s abruptly struct speechless.

In front of him, hovering in the air, was a computer-generated image of what he had just drawn. Every uneven line and unsymmetrical wing.

“Holy shit dude…” Kenny breathes.

Kyle shoots his gaze over to him, green eyes bright and smile wide across his features. “Pretty cool, right?”

Kenny just nods, looking back to the tablet and adding the finishing touches to his drawing. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s decent.

He watches as Kyle regards it with a grin. “You’re a really good artist,” he tells him.

Something flutters within Kenny’s chest at the words. A certain tightness entering his throat. He’d used to love drawing as a kid, flowers, and princesses, and his family all in fancy clothes up in a magic castle. But things like that didn’t happen. Fairytales didn’t exist, and the world was an unforgiving place. He had stopped drawing a long time ago. Still, it was nice to hear.

Made him feel almost nostalgic, as if he was ten years old again.

Kyle takes one look at his expression and his smile softens.

“Draw me something else?”

Kenny swallows. “Like what?”

“Anything.” Kyle says the words gently, but there is something undeniably bright within his gaze. Almost as if he was excited. “Something from your world.”

And so he does.

He draws him many things. Ranging from trees to road signs. From princesses to train tracks. And Kyle’s interest never wanes. He sits there and asks questions that Kenny answers to the best of his ability, and even when he fumbles over an explanation or one of his drawings comes out particularly shitty, Kyle just smiles and urges him to continue.

Still, as time goes on Kyle slips further onto the floor until he’s curled up on the ground, eyelids fluttering in exhaustion.

“Sorry,” he yawns after Kenny lightly pokes him in the shoulder, “healing you takes a lot out of me.”

He looks up with a tired smile and for the first time Kenny notices the dark circles under his eyes that he only now realizes serve as evidence of the energy drain from healing him. Kenny’s not really sure he understands. If it exhausted him so much, why would he go through all the trouble to heal a stranger? Some alien on a different planet no less. Why would he risk bringing him onto his ship instead of just leaving him there on the ground after he was at least pretty sure he wasn’t going to die. Why would he care enough to take him and restore him to full health himself?

He wants to ask him these things, but that’s an awful lot of questions to ask at once, especially since Kyle looked to be moments away from sleep. So, Kenny settles for the most all-inclusive one he can think of.

“Why did you save me?” His voice is soft, a lot more fragile than he had intended.

Right before he falls asleep, Kyle looks up at him with a little drowsy smile.

“You looked like you needed saving,” he says in answer.

Then his eyes close and his breathing slows, leaving Kenny to look at the now sleeping boy in shock for a few moments. In a split decision, he shrugs off his orange parka and drapes it over Kyle’s sleeping form, throat feeling tight as he watches him snuggle into its warmth.

He wonders if he knows just how true his words were.

***

“Hey,” Kenny starts one night, a question he had been thinking about for a while sitting at the edge of his tongue, “I’ve been wondering, what were you doing down on earth anyway?”

Kyle looks up from where he had been fiddling on his big fancy computer, before looking back down with a distinct frown.

“It’s...not really important.”

Kenny laughs humorlessly, not really knowing what else he should do. He really hadn’t been expecting that kind of reaction. “What are you the runner for some alien invasion we should be aware of?”

“What?!” Kyle shoots his gaze up vehemently. “No! Of course not, we’re a very peaceful people I’ll have you know.”

“Yeah, sure.” Kenny flops over on the sofa and gives him his best pout. “Come on Ky, who am I gonna tell?”

Biting his lip, Kyle looks at him uncertainly. As if torn.

“It’s not something I’m proud of,” he admits.

Sitting up again, Kenny regards him seriously. His words sparking something in him, something he’s suddenly not so afraid to admit. Why should he? This place was literally separated from the world. Their own little safe haven. And he trusted Kyle, as crazy as that was.

He _wanted_ to tell him.

“I think we’ve all done things we’re not necessarily proud of.”

“Yeah?” Kyle asks questioningly, raising a brow.

And that’s all the invitation Kenny needs.

Turning his gaze to the planet earth, he begins his tale. The one thing he had never before told anyone. “A couple years back I decided to take up the mantle of a vigilante. It used to be for justice, but I went and lost my way for a little while.” He looks at his unmarked hand stained with phantom blood and closes his fist. “Hurt a lot of people. Stopped myself from saving a lot of those that I probably could have. I try not to dwell on it, but I still haven’t been able to wear the damn costume for a while now.”

“What made you stop?” Kyle’s voice speaks up softly.

“It eats at you,” he says, tone barely above a whisper, “the guilt I mean. Even with as much as you pretend that it doesn’t.” He shrugs, switching his gaze to the floor as he feels the prickle of tears. “After a while it just...becomes impossible to ignore.”

After he finishes speaking he’s only met with silence and for a moment he wonders if he had been wrong in telling Kyle all of that. That maybe he hated him now. That maybe he should.

But after a moment, Kyle starts speaking. Not responding to anything that Kenny had said and he’s thankful for it, because they’re his old ghosts and not something he feels with dealing with right now. Just something he finally feels a bit more liberated having gotten off of his chest. So, instead Kyle answers his story with a story of his own. The one he had been oh so hesitant to tell before.

It was a truth for a truth.

“I told you before that I was alone on this ship?” Kyle begins. “Well, there’s a reason for that. This whole thing here?” Kyle gestures broadly to the room as a whole. “Stolen. It’s actually my parents and I wasn’t supposed to have it.” He pauses, and Kenny watches silently as he turns to the window, hands clenched into fists at his sides. “I wasn’t supposed to have a lot of things. A choice in my future. A dream of my own. My own damn freedom…”

He trails off and curses, bowing his head and closing his eyes.

“You ran.” Kenny assumes.

“Yeah, I ran away,” he says wiping at his eyes and looking out the window to the infinite blanket of space. “Sometimes I wonder if they’re out there now, trying to find me.”

“Do you want them to?”

“No.” He looks back at Kenny with a slightly bitter smile. “But I think it’d be nice if they tried.”

***

Kyle was captivating.

Little nuances of blue light catch in his eyelashes as he focuses on his hands traveling along Kenny’s body. Appearing deep in thought, a small crease sat nestled between his brows that for a moment Kenny wanted to reach up and smooth with his thumb. To watch as his eyes lifted to meet his in curiosity at the action, a bright apple green, a shade or two brighter than any human he’d ever met. Kenny would smile and lean in, brushing his fingers across the smooth skin of his jaw until they followed their own little path up into the soft looking curls of his hair.

Kyle looks at him with an arched brow and Kenny finally realizes that he’d been staring. And he’s suddenly very aware of Kyle’s hands still resting over his chest, directly above his pounding heart.

“I uh, sorry.”

“For what? Staring?” Kyle shrugs. “Dude, I used to stare at you all the time, especially while you were sleeping after I had rescued you.” He pauses eyes widening as if just realizing what he had just said. “And...that sounded really creepy.”

Kenny snickers. “Just a little. But I’m flattered, never thought I’d be called hot by a guy from another planet before.”

“You must not have met many guys from other planets,” Kyle says completely seriously.

He fake gasps. “Was that a flirt? Are you _flirting_ with me now, Kyle?”

A slow smirk crosses his features, a slight glimmer in his eyes. “And what if I am?”

Kenny is about to respond, meaningless flirting always having come easy to him, but then he stops. His mouth closing as the reality of the situation sinks in. The meaningless flirting that wasn’t really meaningless. The boy, no the alien in front of him. Too bright green eyes and the subtle pounding of his heart.

He answers truthfully. Words softly spoken between them.

“...I don’t know.”

He meets his eyes and for a moment a world of understanding is passed between their connected gaze. The undeniable pull that existed between them, all the wants and wishing of two people who had felt as if something was missing their entire life only to have found it in the ever expansive galaxy outside their planets. Of distance and impossibilities. What it would mean to finally close the space between their lips in a final cross of a line that would have no easy return.

Kenny’s the first to look away, slightly terrified of the sudden tightening of his chest from an emotion he’s suddenly intrinsically aware of. A truth that had perhaps been present, written in every secret smile and feeling of overwhelming rightness he’d been feeling his entire time here. But now he realizes the name for it. And with that name comes an undeniability that he’s not really sure he’s prepared to deal with. Not in these circumstances.

Of all the stupid people he’d met on earth, and here he had to go and lose his heart to a damn alien.

***

It happens during one of their drawing sessions.

Much like they had become accustomed to, Kenny once again held the tablet in his hands while Kyle lounged on the floor beside him. They go through countless images, but as always exhaustion eventually pulls unrelentingly at Kyle. A side effect from the strain he would put on himself just to heal Kenny, even though the blond had outright told him that he didn’t have to worry so much. He was almost fully healed, his injuries hardly even bothered him anymore. But Kyle was unrelentingly stubborn and refused to hear it.

Idiot.

Kenny watches him as he lay curled up on the floor, his eyes beginning to flutter shut.

Without really thinking about it, Kenny’s finger moves in a mindless pattern and it isn’t until Kyle looks up at it with a familiar tired little smile that he realizes he had actually drawn something.

“What’s that one?”

Kenny looks at it and blinks. Surprised, yet unable to stop the fluttery feeling in his chest at the sight.

“It’s a heart symbol,” he explains softly. “It’s used as a way to say you care a lot about someone.”

“Oh.”

Kyle looks at him for a moment, expression unreadable, before he slowly sits up and moves closer.

Then he pauses, so close that Kenny can feel his breath on his lips. As if he’s giving him a chance to pull away. One last chance to turn his head and return to where they once were.

Which is what he should do.

Instead, Kenny moves forward and finally closes the distance between them.

The kiss is gentle. A delicate brush of lips that causes his eyes to flutter shut, and his heart to twist with a feeling he’s never felt before. It’s short and sweet and Kyle is the first to pull away.

He licks his lips, Kenny’s gaze devoutly following the path of his tongue, before the edges of his mouth lift in a proud little smile.

“And that was a way to say that I care a lot about you too,” Kyle says.

Meeting his eyes, Kenny is immediately overwhelmed by the emotion he sees swirling around in those green depths. Something so strong and true that it takes his breath away, makes him want to do nothing but live in his gaze forever. To be looked at in that way every day for the rest of his life. Lost for all eternity.

Without a conscious decision, Kenny is suddenly rushing forward and reclaiming his lips once more. This time burying his hands in Kyle’s hair and letting himself get lost between the realms of feel and taste. With a little surprised noise from deep in Kyle’s throat, he returns the kiss just as fiercely. He is nothing if not fire and passion, and Kenny allows himself to be swept up in it. Giving in for just a moment. Allowing his tongue to slip in to meet his, indulging in a taste so completely foreign and yet indescribably pleasant.

Kenny shivers as Kyle’s arms wrap around him, cushioning him as he guides him onto his back and climbs on top of him, never once breaking contact between their lips.

“This probably isn’t a good idea,” Kenny gasps, finally breaking away with his chest heaving and heart threatening to leap from its prison.

“I know, and I don’t care.” Kyle sits atop him with defiance, green eyes burning bright in the dimness of the room. “Do you?”

Kenny tightens his hold and pulls him back down. “Course not, darlin’. Just wanted to make sure you were aware.”

And they don’t speak again for a long time.

***

The thing about time in a place such as space is that it’s almost meaningless. There’s no existence of days or nights, just infinite blackness and an internal clock that no longer really knows how to do its job. So although Kyle has his technology and things that he uses to tell time, Kenny can’t exactly read it and he finds that he doesn’t really care enough to ask him.

Finds that he really doesn’t want to know.

He’s guilty. Knows the feeling as well as anything, he’s felt it so much in the past years but never has it hit so close to home. The earth before him is remarkably huge, beyond any sort of explanation. Yet, somewhere down there, Karen is probably out looking for him. Worried sick. And here he is happier than he’s ever been, out on a damn spaceship.

He’d ask Kyle to go down there so he could visit her, assure her that he was okay. But then what? Turn around and go back to his little reprieve out in space? Explain to her that he was just spending some time with an alien boy and not to worry? No. No, if he went back it would be a one-way trip. _When_ he went back. This was just... a temporary respite. A little bit of good he had found in the universe for a little while. And Kenny knew more than anyone that good things never lasted.

Still, he doesn’t bring this up to Kyle. The dark thought is his own to bare, and the passionate and hopeful boy shouldn’t have to hear it. Time is ticking, even if there’s no clock to measure it and Kenny is struggling enough himself to hold on to this bit of happiness even as guilt claws back at him with taloned hands.

But even with all his effort of silence, it isn’t long before the truth becomes unavoidable.

“Hey, so I’ve been thinking,” Kyle starts without preamble one day as they sit leaning against each other as they gaze out the ship’s window. “How would you like to come to my world with me?”

Kenny’s heart stops at the words. A prospect so tempting, so damn tempting that had he been standing it might have brought him to his knees. To escape earth and the people he had tried so hard to save for nothing, and start new somewhere else. Somewhere with Kyle.

Somewhere he can never go.

“Kyle-”

“Just hear me out!” Kyle says, cutting him off just a little too quickly. Almost desperately. “I’m sure after a bit of convincing my parents would let you stay at our place. And I’m sure you would love my world. I could show you around and-”

“Darlin’, I can’t come with you.” Kenny cuts in, offering a smile, a sad little half tilt of the lips. “I wish I could, really I do. But I have a sister.”

“We can pick her up, she can-”

“Kyle.”

Kyle finally bows his head. “I know,” he says heavily, resignation lining his tone. He takes a deep shuddering breath. “I understand. But can you just let me pretend? Just for a little while longer?”

Kenny takes his hand and nods, knowing exactly what he means.

***

Things change after that conversation.

It’s exactly what Kenny had been trying to avoid. They still joke around, and draw together, and end most of their conversations with kisses that might last for hours. But the atmosphere has grown heavy. The inevitability of departure weighing down on the both of them. Kyle announces one day that Kenny is fully healed, as if he hadn’t already known, and they let the words sit heavy between them before decidedly ignoring it.

But they couldn’t ignore things forever. Not with even as much as they might have wanted to.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said,” Kyle tells him one day, expression somber. And the moment he starts talking, Kenny knows this is it. It’s really not surprising to him that Kyle is the first one with the courage to break the limbo they’ve been hovering in. “Your sister is waiting for you and my brother and my family is waiting for me,” he continues softly. “I never should have run away...I need to go back.”

Kenny swallows, throat tight and fighting back tears. “When?”

Kyle shrugs, but despite the easy motion his own eyes are glassy. “You’re all healed, so as soon as you’re ready for me to bring you back I’ll make my way home too.”

He’ll make his way home.

Back across an entire galaxy.

Back to a world where Kenny will never be able to follow.

Kenny nods, too choked up to trust himself to speak.

He’d never met someone like Kyle before. Doubts he ever would, not in his lifetime. Bright, fiery, and passionate. Caring, with a willingness to teach and to learn along with an intuitiveness beyond that of anyone he had ever met. Kyle who smiled at his drawings, and healed him when anyone else would have left him for dead, and who he-

And who he loved.

It’s a startling thought, but it’s true. And suddenly he realizes that this moment, right here, might be the last chance he’ll ever get to say it.

“Look, Kyle I-”

Kyle cuts him off with a kiss. A sweet and lingering thing that contains a million words and emotions bottled up and put into an action. It takes Kenny’s breath away.

When Kyle pulls back his eyes are glassy with unshed tears.

“I know,” he says quietly, voice breaking and not seeming to care. “Me too.”

***

Kyle saying he would wait until Kenny was ready was a laughable statement. Kenny would never be ready, not really.

But then again, that’s why he tells him, not long after, that he is. Because Kyle had made that first step and now it was Kenny’s responsibility to make the next one.

It wasn’t fair to prolong things, not any more than they had already.

And so, here they were.

Back on earth, the concrete sitting dark and colorless beneath his shoes.

The two of them on two opposite sides. One framed by the earth, the other framed by his ship and the endless galaxy stretching beyond it.

It was poetic really, how this was the only way it could ever end.

But as he was never too good with endings, Kenny decides to cycle back to the beginning. Thinking of the first time he had met this strange alien boy on earth on a night that felt like a lifetime ago, but probably couldn’t have been more than a few weeks at the most.

“The first day we met,” Kenny starts quietly with a half smile, “after you found me you said something to me in your language. What was it?”

Kyle matches his half smile, a full one between them. Not that it matters. “I’ll tell you what,” he says, “Next time I see you, I’ll let you know.”

Kenny shakes his head and laughs. “Trying to keep a little bit of mystery?”

“More of a promise,” Kyle says with a small nod before he turns away. Back to his ship. Back to his world. “Goodbye, Kenny.” He says with one last look over his shoulder, “I’ll see you again someday.”

“Right.” Kenny’s voice is quiet, not quite believing the words and knowing that Kyle can’t hear him anyway as he boards his ship and shuts the door without looking back again. “Someday.”

He watches that ship until it vanishes among the stars, becoming one with the sky once more.

Then he turns and makes his way back home.

***

_Present Day:_

Walking out of the bar, Kenny bids farewell to Stan and the two part ways at the front entrance. There is certain sad slope still present in Stan’s shoulders yet there something almost bright within the shadows of his eyes. Something that suggests that, hidden beyond the disbelief that had been present ever since Kenny had weaved a condensed tale of spaceships and a redheaded boy who had saved him, there is a distinct shade of hope. Stan had always been a bit of a hopeless romantic, it’s the very reason why Kenny had bothered telling him at all.

And as he takes his first steps out into the streetlight lit streets, he can’t help but wonder if the tale might be enough to convince Stan to hold Wendy a little closer tonight. To be grateful for what he has.

Kenny looks up to the sky with a melancholic smile. The blanket of darkness like a doorway to another world. To a million other universes. Endless possibilities and a memory.

All unreachable now.

He drops his gaze back to the street ahead. The lightless buildings and a sidewalk that would lead him to an empty apartment. And for a moment, _just_ a moment, he wonders how Kyle would see it. The quiet fascination, that same tilt to his brow he would get whenever he viewed one of his drawings, as if trying to puzzle it out within his head.

“Somehow this place looks different than I remember it.”

Damn, it was as if he could even hear his voice. Something about spending so much time recollecting their time together must have helped jog his memory.

“Or...just keep walking. That’s fine, I guess.”

Kenny spins around.

“Kyle?” He breathes, looking at the person in front of him who he’d convinced himself he’d never see again.

He’s the same as he remembers him, yet somehow his memory had failed to do him justice. His eyes brighter than he recalls, smile just a shade warmer. But it’s him.

 _That’s_ what’s undeniable.

Still half convinced that he’s dreaming, he can do nothing but stand there and stare.

“You came back,” Kenny says breathlessly.

“Yeah,” Kyle’s smile softens. “I came back.”

And that’s all that Kenny needs to hear to break whatever trance he had been in.

Without a conscious effort suddenly his feet are flying across the pavement, crossing what little distance lies between them before he practically throws himself into his arms. Kyle catches him, steading them both with a laugh. Kenny cuts the sound off with his lips, linking his arms around his shoulders and tugging him closer as he gets lost in the familiar sensation that he’d never stopped longing for in their years apart. A little noise of surprise escapes from Kyle’s throat before he returns the kiss with the same amount of vigor and passion. They break for air only to dive right back in, heated fire settling into a slow burn, kisses turning slow and languid. Kenny shivers, warmth shooting down his spine and traveling all the way down to his toes, heart pounding in the familiar rhythm of an all-consuming feeling he had felt for this alien boy and no one else.

“So,” Kenny exhales against his lips after breaking away to catch his breath, “what brings a boy like you to a place like this?”

Without missing a beat, Kyle rests his forehead against his and replies, “What if I said it was you?”

“I’d say it’s an awfully long distance to travel just to visit me.”

“And if I said I’m not just visiting?”

Kenny jerks his head away to stare at him fully with wide eyes. “What?”

Kyle gives him a smile, something impossibly wide and true. “After I got home and everything settled down, my parents and I had a long talk,” he explains. “Sure they were mad. Furious even. But I then I told them about you, and this world, and everything that I had learned, and for the first time in my life they actually listened.” He pauses, eyes narrowing for a moment. “Well, my mom did at least. She made me a deal, if I saved up enough to buy my own ship, went to traveling classes, and promised to always stop home every once in a while, then she wouldn’t stand in the way of what made me happy. So, I did everything she said and came straight here.” He pauses and for the first time he looks at Kenny with something that might be nervousness. “Thinking that maybe...you could show me your world?”

At a loss for words, Kenny just pulls him in and kisses him again. Kyle grins into the kiss, but before he pulls back he breathes a soft word against his lips, a mixture of sounds that is meaningless yet Kenny somehow finds familiar.

“What?” Kenny says, leaning back to look at him in confusion.

Kyle’s lips tilt in an amused little smirk.

“That’s what I called you when we first met.”

Kenny runs the sounds through his head again before shaking his head, not making any sense of it.

“I don’t even know what you're saying.”

Kyle laughs and shakes his head. “Maybe it doesn’t translate. It’s a word used to describe the feeling of being both fearful and awed of what is in front of you,” he explains, never taking his eyes away from Kenny. “It’s used mostly by travelers in my world. Explorers. People who spend their lives searching the entire galaxy to find that one thing that makes it all worth it. Like a waterfall so big that you can’t help but be simultaneously stunned by its beauty and awestruck by its power. Something world changing, unlike anything you’ve ever seen or heard about. That’s,” he concludes slowly, resting a palm against Kenny’s cheek, “what I felt when I first saw you.”

Kenny would be lying if he said he wasn’t more than a little choked up. Still, he manages a laugh. “And here I just called you an angel.”

After quickly kissing him again, Kyle finally pulls fully away and knocks his shoulder against his.

“You probably just picked up on my ability to fly.”

With a laugh, Kenny grab’s Kyle offered hand before looking up at him and fluttering his eyelashes. “My hero.”

Kyle slightly pushes him again, but still their hands remain interlocked as Kenny leads him down the streets back to his apartment. Still feeling just a bit like he’s in some kind of perfect dream.

“Hey wait,” Kyle says suddenly as if just remembering something, “didn’t you mention before that you were a vigilante?”

“Yeah I did...why?”

“I’m just saying,” Kyle starts with that same little proud tilt to his chin, “with my abilities I would make a pretty great hero.”

“Kyle you literally just got here,” Kenny points out, caught between exasperation and amusement.

“Okay but just picture it. I could have a name like...The Kite, no wait, the _Human_ Kite, that way no one will guess that I'm not human.”

Bringing a hand up to his face, Kenny tries his best to muffle his giggles. “See, I’m glad you’re thinking ahead. They’ll never be able to figure it out.”

“Right?”

And so the two of them continue the walk down the darkened streets and back to Kenny’s apartment. The future uncertain, yet brighter than it had been in a long time. And as they walk, the stars up above begin to fade as the first rays of dawn start peeking through the sky.


End file.
